By the fourteenth century there were at least nine families
in the village, for they are readily identifiable from deeds: Adam in the Lane,
John Doget, William the Blakesmith, William Chapman, Thomas and William atte
Wick, Robert the Shepherd and others. Where their homes are mentioned they
would appear to lie north of the brook, between the field called the Hyde and
the common pasture called the Mersh (or marsh) or near another called the Dene
(or valley). These two areas or common still exist, though now perhaps a little
smaller and known as the Great and Little Common respectively. Bradmere or
Broadmoor was another area of pasture, but today this is arable and part of
North Field.
The meadows were to be found near the river and brooks, the
Innings (today known as the Inner Ward Mead) lying parallel to the Great Common
but north of the brook, the Wards, by Cuckoo Weir, and South Meadow. The thirteenth century and the first half of
the fourteenth century was a period of land hunger and there is clear evidence
of land being won from the areas previously considered too marshy to use, such
as the Water Slades mentioned In a deed as land 'newly cultivated'. This land lies on either side of the Eton Wick Road near
the Willow Tree public house where the land still dips perceptibly. The word slad(e)s can mean a hollow. In the eighteenth century there used to be a row of posts marked to
show the depth of water lying on the road in the almost annual floods, giving
warning to the carriages and waggons using the road. Even today there are still
metal posts standing which were used during the 1947 floods.
There were four open fields, the Hyde, North Field, South
Field and West Field, the latter so named apparently because It lay west
of Eton rather than on the west side of the parish; in later centuries It
appears to have been renamed Stonebridge Field.
Each field was divided into many strips and these grouped Into shots, furlongs
or pieces with distinctive names such as Longfurlong, Middle Furlong, Stone hul
(hill), Long Wythebedde, Broken Furlong and Rossey Piece. There was also land
known simply as 'village land'. No hedges divided these strips and furlongs
but, although each open field was planted with the same crops, the different
alignment of the furlongs gave the fields a patchwork appearance. The holdings of each man or woman, either
owned or rented, were scattered throughout the fields and meadows. It is
thought that originally each strip could be ploughed in one day and that the
strips of land had been shared between the fields and its furlongs. By medieval
times land had changed hands too often for any such pattern to be apparent, but
certain families, such as the Brocases of Clewer, the Jourdelays of Eton and
Eton Wick and many others were building up estates and farms. Small and large
holdings were still dispersed among the fields as the dower settlement of
Margaret Huntercombe of 1336 shows only too clearly. The Eton Manor was in 35
separate plots and she received a third of each of these, so that many were
less than an acre and the narrowest no more than one pole

Strip
farming in the open fields was also practised in Boveney Parish. The part of Eton Wick that came under that
parish was once part of the Tilstone Field and the Shepherd's Hut was built at
the end of one strip in about 1830 when the rest of the field was still being
tilled. The name 'Tilstone' is
intriguing; the earliest record of it occurs in a sixteenth century document
when it was spelt 'Tyila's dene' suggesting that the name is derived from the
dene or dip in the land owned by Tylla.
No records have been found to tell us who he was.
Rutted
and dusty or muddy and full of puddles, the roads of the Middle Ages little
resembled the macadam highway of today, yet already by the fourteenth century
there was a pattern that is recognizable today. The Eton Wick Road was a public
track though lying entirely within South Field.
Bell Lane and Common Road were both being used, their route following
the edge of the Great Common and the Manor boundary. Haywards Mead, crossing
the South Field to Meadow Lane, Eton, was one of the "King's highways', as
was another road running through South Field and roughly parallel with the
Thames, leading from New .Windsor to Boveney.
None as yet possessed their modern names; Common Road was BIakes
(possibly Blacksmiths) Lane and one of those passing through the South Field by
Cuckoo Weir was appropriately known as Mill Lane. Joiebalteslane is perhaps to
be identified as the road running towards Little Common. The track which still
runs north of the Great Common, alongside the Inner Ward Meads, was called
Innings Lane. Connecting this track to Broadmoor and possibly continuing to
Chalvey was Droflane. Though the position of this lane is not known, old maps
of the parish show several footpaths crossing the North Field, and until the
motor car changed the pattern of family life, these footpaths were regularly
used by the people of Chalvey and Eton Wick.
This is an extract from The Story of a Village: Eton Wick 1217 to 1977 by Judith Hunter.
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